This week in PC games: vert-ramping trains, a retold murder mystery, and Cthulhu’s new gig as an AI Director

What we're feeding the Maw

Merry Monday, readers. Edwin’s been struck down by a post-TennoCon lurgy, and we were only too happy to allow him some rest, provided he file his Soulframe and Warframe: Tau stories before collapsing into a feverish heap. We even agreed to feed the Maw in his absence, albeit without reaching a similar accord on responsibility for the litter tray.

Thus: new PC games this week. Here are some of them.

Monday 13th July

• Ascend to Zero is a sci-fi action-roguelike that adds a layer of temporal manipulation on top of its loosely Hades-like fight rooms.
• Science Cop sim Forensics: Crime Scene Detective puts you in charge all those fingerprint and bullet striation comparisons you saw attractive people doing on CBS in the 2000s.
• Soulforge Lost Path aims to purge some of the RNGness from its Survivorslike/bullet heaven combat by having you carefully manage a cramped inventory space, while letting you use looted resources to forge brand new demoncutters.
• Imagine Unpacking in zero gravity, and you’re most of the way towards the floaty book-wrangling of Tidy Up: Spaceship.

Tuesday 14th July

• D-Topia is a a "gentle-paced" puzzle adventure about being forced to keep an AI-managed society in a state of algorithmic bliss.
• Eerie puzzler The Incident at Galley House is a VN remake of William Rous’ murder mystery text adventure Type Help, down to the use of a strange device that replays past conversations.

Wednesday 15th July

• Life sim sequel Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit once again gets you helping out ghosts and building up your campsite. Alice Bee (RPS in Peace) liked the original.
• I’m under review embargo for Denshattack, so I can’t say much more than it’s a train-driving game where you do tricks and stunts. Oh no, who dropped this demo impressions piece here?
• Ace Team’s Lovecraftian co-op shooter The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu is out this week; I’ve seen it described as an extraction game, though Edwin got Left 4 Dead vibes from the demo.

Thursday 16th July

• Flip patties and flee monsters in Happy's Humble Burger Cult, a "cooking horror" game for 1-4 kitchen drones. Looks alright, though I must say I preferred its original name, Happy's Humble Burgatory.
• Mousey 3D platformer Moss: The Forgotten Relic is a combination of Polyarc’s VR console games Moss and Moss: Book II, made 'flat' for headsetless PC players.
• Storebound is ending its spell in early access, the mall-set cooperative horror puzzler launching into 1.0 with the addition of its fifth and sixth episodes.
• Lot of bring-some-friends horror stuff out this week, eh. Wreck Runners has you shooting and looting within a haunted Bermuda Triangle, armed mainly with HL2-style gravity guns.

Friday 17th July

• The tentatively Julian-approved Fogpiercer is a tactical roguelike deckbuilder about equipping and defending a train as it barrels through the end of the world. No Chris Evans, mind.
• Frozen Ship also concerns snow, a vital vehicle, and the post-apocalypse, but it’s a first-person survival game where both you and the miniature city aboard your craft depend on MAKING good finds. It’s launching on the 17th in early access.

Also this week – today, in fact – is RPS’s 19th birthday. Hooray for us, and for all of you lovely readers. We’re saving a proper celebration for our 20th, though, partly because it’s a cooler number and partly because we’re a bit all over the place in the coming days. Julian’s off to the Develop conference in Brighton, Edwin’s on the Lemsip, and I’m disappearing on Wednesday for a brief, post-Steam Machine holiday. We’ve got plans to keep the posts a-comin’, though, and as always, do share any games we’ve missed in the comments.